● Featured Article

  • Of Trees and Roots and Names of Things

    When my grandpa Averill bought property on Wolf Lake in the Irish Hills of Michigan in the early 40s, he picked the choice lot for himself, and then parceled out smaller lots along the lake edge in a little barony he named “Averill’s Basswood Terrace”. (My grandpa liked to see…

● Latest Articles

  • Soda Kiln Project

    This is the kiln form, on loan from a friend that holds up the walls til the keystone is in it sits up on wedges,…

  • Soda Kiln Base

    This is the nice triple layer of brick on top of the cinderblocks,  heavy and thick with firebrick on top and low temp bricks beneath…

  • Kiln Bricks

    This is the trailer where Kelly lined bricks in their rows of 2000’s, 23s and 26 the three kinds of arch bricks, in rows new…

  • Kiln Grandma

    This is the grandma at ninety and four with a Michigan license who rode to the store and rented the mixer for pouring the slab…